I sat down with Mike “The Monkey” Senften of 4DThieves to talk about his latest 3D masterpiece, Ecko Artifaks. In the interview, Mike talks about the overall scope and design of the project and about how he pulled off some of these silky smooth animations. We also get some behind the scenes about the techniques used to make the spot. Mike used just about every tool at his disposal to to get such a varied look for these spots including Cinema 4D, Mograph, Pyrocluster, Trapcode Particular, Meta Balls, Sketch And Toon, MoDynamics, Time Tracks, Trapcode Sound Keys, and multiple destruction tools for the final scene.
Thanks again to The Monkey for doing this interview. Mike has been a big part of teaching me Cinema4D though his generous posts and scene files over at Mograph.net. I’m hoping to get him back on Greyscalegorilla for more interviews and maybe even some tutorials. With his incredible technical skill, design ability, and a name like “The Monkey” he is bound to show back up.
Links from the Interview
Mike’s NAB Presentation
Xplode
GEO Tools 2010
Mograph.net Thread
4DThieves
The Ecko Artifaks Spot
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49 Comments
Nick, this is awesome dude. The Monkey is a legend and so insightful. I’ve benefited so much from his generous posts on Mograph.net.
Cheers,
Andy
Yeah, this looks awsm!!! After watchin this, even if you dont like 3d you simply must fall in love…Go Monkey, Go Gorilla!!!!!
Phenomenal interview. Loved it. Inspirational and educational.
loved the interview, i think this is something that you should absolutely do more of!
and mike, your work is incredible, i’ll be in brooklyn starting later this month, i’d love to meet!
The secret to the feel of the whole clip is definitely in the smooth moves of the progressive tracks.
outstanding work.
Cool video. 1 tutorial from this video.
killer post from Mograph Simians.
Wow. Amazing work.
Jay on June 11th, 2010 said...
Dude you Nick Campbell brother??lol Hey Nick Look at ur brother…lol
well…”amazing”…”cool”…is not enougth…i need a word in my language…..—ARRECHISIIIMOOOOOO!!!!—….( that it can´t be translated)..thanks for posting this piece of art
Nick I totally missed seeing your presentation at NAB this year. I was bummed, I did however stumble on Mikes Presentation and was blown away. It might have been on Tuesday, any how, Mike was very informative and we spoke afterwards. and Im still racking my brain on Time Tracks with C4D. I would love to see a total work flow Tutorial with C4D and Time Tracks even with something like his opening RAW UNCUT “sketch and Toon” open. I get the inheritance effector I but things like Sound Effector or even SoundKeys in AE are kinda stumping me. took me forever to figure out how to add a time track.. hehe.. great interview! nice work.
watched half of this and until now it is a priceless contribution to us all.
coming back later to wrap this up.
thanks Nick and Mike.
Wow. The Monkey is one bad MamaJamma. His skills are what im striving for. His work is the Hotness for sure.
totally awesome, loved every second of it.
Is there a ink anywhere btw to the nab presentation on the net?
PS would love a tut on the opening liquid ink splats always wanted to do this without using other s/w.
The Gorilla on June 12th, 2010 said...
The NAB Presentation is linked below the interview.
a tut on using soundkeys in cinema 4d would be cool.
would me/anyone pull this off again or anything close to this sweet in our lifetime again?? i dont think so.. im jacked looking at it..
Speechless.
Hey Nick,
Thanks for bringing the Monkey. You guys are amazing. Can’t wait for the Mike’s tutorial.
I just got a perfect weekend breakfast “with you guys”, just talking and chilling during this interview. Always a fun and great lesson to watch you Nick.
Cheers and Thank you,
Yatze
That was great! You should definitely bring in more people and do interviews.
And if you could do a tutorial on pyrocluster one day, i would greatly appreciate it
Very cool stuff! Thanks!!
That was awesome. Great to see you two guys collaborating. I can’t wait to see what you do next. Thanks.
One of the best videos you’ve done yet. Love breakdowns.
This was really great! Super excited to see some tutorials from the Monkey.
There was mention of the other animator/designer who worked on this thing, James something, I think you only said his last name once. Could you maybe link to him also?
the_Monkey on June 13th, 2010 said...
James Gundersen.
http://www.jamesgundersen.com/
awesome stuff!
thanks to both
terrific interview guys! These sorts of interviews where the job are broken down creativity and technically are rare and wonder to find. Looking forward to Monkeys tutorial, sounds exciting!
Ecko Artifaks NAB interview? So I can see him go over the scene
The Gorilla on June 13th, 2010 said...
The NAB presentation is linked below the interview
The more I watch this, the more I love it. Where can I buy those watches btw? i can’t seem to find a spot online for them?
chetan on June 13th, 2010 said...
you wont believe im feeling like buying all 5 watches an looking at them all day.. im forgetting the point that im also in the same field an acting like crazy just like i want the first iPad..
Amazing Work!
Loved it and learned something, thanks Mike!
Great Interview, great information, great video. Thanks
Enjoyed the interview. Thanks!
great !
thank you
Nice Show – thanks to the both monkeys
Could somebody explain that particular alpha squeeze to liquid technique? I didnt understand at all..
Hey man! Great interview!
I was wondering if you know how many people worked on the project and how it was accomplished… Like Mike being the creative/art director, and/or doing the most technical part and then delegating more detail-level parts… or viseversa?
I’m really intrigued about the workflow.
Keep the good posts coming!
the_Monkey on June 19th, 2010 said...
I developed the concept and the technical approach for each section. Davis made most all of the 3D models. I developed each look, time sequence, and animated each of the 5 sections in C4D. James stitched the sections together and added final FX in AE.
Both Davis and James are fantastic animators and I had planned on each of us taking equal parts, but both of them were pulled away (multiple times) to work on other projects. In the end it kind of became my baby, but both Davis and James were crucial to the piece turning out as well as it did.
Awsome work Monkey cant wait for your tutorial!!
Great interview and the spot by the monkey is just pure awesomeness
Great interview and I loved the NAB video. I just wish I understood more of what Monkey was talking about;) Definitely looking forward to a Monkey tut!!!
Just saw this, very nice!! Look forward to monkey tutorials for sure.
I remember this piece from mograph.net and was glad to hear a lot got cut instead of my memory failing me.
Sorry to see the hourglass shot go though, great work as always, monkey et al.
the_Monkey on June 19th, 2010 said...
Actually that was an entirely different piece I animated at Dorian Orange 3 years ago (and the last piece I directed before Artifaks).
http://mograph.net/board/index.php?showtopic=12692
mars sanford on June 21st, 2010 said...
whoa Ecko really does give you a lot of sweet work then!
Turns out my memory was failing me (big surprise), thanks for the follow up.
wow…that’s all I can say, Gorilla how did he manage to bring the graffiti in like that after the train went around it??
????????? ???????, ?????? ????!
i really like the beginning with the raw uncut!
If you guys want to video the NAB video on vimeo, I posted it up on my account and you can find it here: http://vimeo.com/12403375
Thanks Mike for being so open to share your work and your brilliance!
Wow, this is the kind of stuff I love to see in blogs and conferences. A masterpiece man! Thanks!
I can`t figure out ,how to install plugins in to R11.5 .The only plugins that showed up for me is c4d star plug and realflow plugin.I have tryed a bunch of plugins folowing the instructions but non of them shows up when I open plugin meniu.Can anyone help me to find out ,whats wrong? Recenty I have got the xplode and xbreaker plugs.I have them unziped and copied in to plugins folder,but as I said- non of them work
WOW, AMAZING!!!
My chin felt off when I first saw this ecko animation. Fantastic Composition!!!
hey there
first of all u guys are the best
i just got a technical question about plane effector,
in blue part where spray cans flip to cityscape everything scales up and then goes back to original size.
Any clue on that one? I got it to flip my objects and i like it but scaling leaves objects scaled up, how do i get them to go back to original size after flip?
keep up great work, i’m so happy to find your page
it’s more than tutorials.
goofy on July 4th, 2010 said...
oh you know what, I got it.
i used second plain effector with spline in falloff and it seam to work just fine.
Great interview, Monkey, a slower more detailed tutorial about time tracks and the sound effector would really be awesome, I watched your NAB presentation and couldn’t catch a thing you said but I knew I liked it, and can you also show how to use the scrips that were provided there.
Thanx.
Anybody have any idea when these watches go on sale??
WOW amazing work, I love this piece very inspirational.
Great stuff. Just starting out so I could not figure out how you got all the audio data tracks. I have the scripts from Cineversity but do not know how to use them to get the data….
Any help or links would be great!